Eric Powell: Where's Our Harry Potter?

In the latest issue of The Goon (number 39 if you're looking for accuracy), Eric Powell made so many valid points that I've decided to post up his editorial in it's entirety. If you have never tried The Goon then you are clearly doing yourself a disservice.

Ladies and gentlemen...Mr. Eric Powell...


Where's Our Harry Potter?


Imagine your absolute favorite non-Marvel-or-DC-superhero comic book. Now imagine that book was 100 percent better. Imagine that comic was the best comic you had ever read in your entire life. Imagine that comic was as good as chocolate puppies and New York pizza.

That comic couldn't be the top-selling comic in this country right now.

Now imagine your favorite story ever (non-Marvel or DC superhero), whether it's a TV show, novel, film, or whatever. That one that does what amazing fiction can by wrapping you inside it and making you sad that you can't really visit the world it created in your mind. Now imagine it was a comic instead.

That comic couldn't be the top-selling comic in this country right now.

Out of the top 1,000 comics sold in the US in 2011, 24 were not Marvel or DC superhero titles. (Sales figures found on ComiChron.com.)

Twenty-four. Out of one thousand. Twenty-four, people. And none of those twenty-four came close to being the top-selling comic. But that's okay; the comic-book industry is being stabilized on the strong backs of Marvel and DC, right? Wrong. Sales across the board on comics have been plummeting for decades. Yeah, yeah, I can hear you now. "Well, all print media is struggling now in the digital age!" You can stuff all those digital-media excuses. Comic sales were dropping long before the advent of e-readers. If anything, the Internet is helping the expansion of comics readership by making new and different material accessible. I myself am proof that Internet buzz can help a creator-owned book succeed.

Over the last couple of years I've been very vocal about the comics industry's lack of diversified content. I feel strongly that we need new, exciting, creator-owned content that generates new readership to fuel our struggling industry, and we need to stop relying on the floundering system of old nostalgia-driven superhero titles from Marvel and DC. We need to create an environment where the best new idea, well executed, could be the top selling book - where we're not putting all of this industry's best efforts to survive into a rehash of a rehash.

I hear comments that we can't do new, different types of material because superheroes are all the comic readers want. But that's because it's the only demographic we continue to sell to - and that's not working so well. We should be selling to the cape readers...as well as the readers of every other genre out there. Just like film, books, music, TV, and, for f***'s sake, every other entertainment industry. We've been dying because we are so focused on getting the dollars out of this one demographic that we've forgotten our potential. I love the Marvel and DC characters, too, but, Jesus, am I the only one who gets bored with them? From our sales figures, apparently not. And to all the superhero fan boys that get bent so out of shape over people talking about new creator-owned comics: If this industry were doing better, you'd be getting more of the books you love and at better quality. Not less. Batman isn't going anywhere.

(Oh, and by the way, if your avatar is a photo of yourself dressed in Renfest garb...you're not allowed to call someone an a**hole. I call bulls***. You just can't do that.)


Oh, and while I'm on the topic of Internet trolls...To those calling me a hypocrite for doing a handful of comics for Marvel and DC in the past while preaching about the lack of focus our industry shows for creator-owned titles, I have this to say: Marvel and DC comics didn't make me. Creator-owned comics made me. No one was beating down my door before The Goon. I'm appreciative of every job Marvel and DC ever gave me; however, they made money off my name. They wouldn't have given me a job otherwise. We both profited from that work, so I owe them nothing. That being said, Marvel and DC were great companies to work for. I got paid on time, and especially with DC, found their editorial staff a joy to work with. See, that's how it's done, Fox News. FAIR AND BALANCED, MOTHER****ERS! So pardon me, Trolly McTroller, for having the courage of my convictions and for having the balls to stick my professional neck out on the line. How about you take into consideration I might possibly be taking away an extra revenue stream by saying the business model of the big two is holding us all back instead of pushing us into the future? No? Oh, well. Nice boots, Harry Mudd.

Where were we? Oh yeah, with the bitching. I've also heard people make the comparison that Marvel and DC are to creator-owned comics as summer blockbusters are to indie films. WRONG! We aren't talking about commercial versus high art. We are talking commercial versus other types of commercial. If Harry Potter were a Dark Horse comic instead of a novel, it would be struggling to sell ten thousand, just because it's not in a Marvel or DC superhero universe. Where's our Harry Potter? Where's our megahit that comes out of nowhere and draws people into comic shops? Why are we denying ourselves the possibility of that? We are an inbred industry propped up on the spindly legs of Marvel and DC comics. And with 90 percent of our industry being supported by Marvel and DC, which are owned by Disney and Warner Bros., what happens if those two giant corporations, who don't care one bit about funny books, decide that all these characters they own are more profitable in video games, movies, and bed sheets than in comic books? If they close their doors, the comic industry, as we know it, is dead the next day. And that's a ridiculous scenario we've painted ourselves into. That's like if Paramount went out of business, there would be no more movies. We should be making new, creator-owned content in a variety of genres just as vital to sustaining this industry as the big two's superhero titles. And we should have started twenty years ago.

Of course, I'm just some idiot from Tennessee. What do I know?

-Eric Powell


Eric can be found over on Twitter @goonguy